Poland's long-running fight over its Constitutional Tribunal exploded into a full-blown crisis overnight from Friday into Saturday. Police surrounded the court's headquarters in Warsaw after a judge announced she was suspending the Tribunal's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice president, Bartłomiej Sochański, for one month and taking over the running of the court. Both men were reportedly denied entry, while hundreds of protesters faced riot police outside, three people were detained and several were reportedly injured. President Karol Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal, rushed to the building, and declared a "forcible takeover" of a constitutional body. He let Sochański into the building, told the judge who took charge that she was not a judge of the Tribunal, and called urgent talks with the parliamentary parties.

Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński has since called the events a coup and told Americans that the same thing could happen in the United States if the left takes power. He argued that his opponents want to take control of the court so they are protected after losing next year, and he compared it to American fights over the Supreme Court. Those are political claims rather than established facts, and the government sees the situation very differently. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government does not recognize the Tribunal's legitimacy because some of its judges were unlawfully appointed under the previous Law and Justice government, and it points out that the European Court of Human Rights has ordered the Tribunal to accept four judges chosen by parliament. Each side accuses the other of breaking the constitution, so the fight over who rightfully runs Poland's top court is far from over.